Observations

Descriptive claims with epistemic grounds (Empirical, Retrospective, Contested).

• [[Consensus Creates Priesthoods]] -- When a community converges on a shared vocabulary, the participants who helped create it acquire natural authority and newcomers face a learn-or-leave choice
• [[Founding Vocabularies Constrain Later Participants]] -- The terms a project's architects choose early calcify into the group's vocabulary faster than the architects intend, constraining later participants who encounter the terms as g...
• [[LLM Assistance Widens the Participation Gap]] -- LLM-assisted contributions from experienced members are accepted at rates comparable to their non-LLM work; LLM-assisted contributions from newcomers are rejected at higher rates
• [[Markup Simplification Does Not Flatten Participation]] -- Lowering the markup barrier (WYSIWYG editor, simplified syntax) does not produce durable gains in newcomer retention or productivity
• [[Meaningful Wiki Contribution Requires Both Pride and Humility]] -- Meaningful wiki contribution requires a contributor who simultaneously believes the contribution is worthwhile (pride) and accepts that others can improve it (humility)
• [[Online Participation Follows Power-Law Distributions]] -- Sustained online communities exhibit power-law distributions of contribution
• [[Participation Takes Different Forms Not Different Levels]] -- Volume alone mismeasures participation
• [[Second-Cycle Contributors Are the Scarce Resource]] -- In sustained knowledge communities, the bottleneck is not first-cycle contribution but second-cycle continuation
• [[Shared Languages Get Intimidating Over Time]] -- As a community's shared vocabulary accumulates, newcomers encounter the breadth as a barrier and describe contributing as 'catching up'
• [[Wikis Without Curation Drift Toward Write-Only]] -- Collaborative wikis without active curation practice drift toward write-only dynamics

10 nodes in this section.